<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Karen Picasso by roundthecherrytree</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24457489">Karen Picasso</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/roundthecherrytree/pseuds/roundthecherrytree'>roundthecherrytree</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Karen does art and Gretchen [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Artist Karen, F/F, One Shot, Set before Cady Heron</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:22:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>636</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24457489</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/roundthecherrytree/pseuds/roundthecherrytree</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Why does Karen use so many emojis in the first place? And Gretchen Wieners takes an art class.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Karen Smith/Gretchen Wieners</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Karen does art and Gretchen [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768237</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Karen Picasso</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is set their freshmen year at high school, and there are no plastics they're all just friends. </p><p>Regina George isn't a bad person here either.</p><p>I've seen some people asking how Karen got into their friend group in the first place and I think Karen's emojis in the musical is the cutest thing so:)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s not that Gretchen <em>wanted</em> to get away from her friend; it’s just that she needed a space to go when Regina got to be a little too much for her. Although Regina was trying, she saw a therapist every weekend to discuss how to improve her temper, but Gretchen didn’t know how to just brush off some of the things Regina said when she would snap. So when her guidance counselor told her she had a free period in her schedule, Gretchen chose to fill it with an art class for two reasons: she knew Regina would never be caught dead taking an art class because “come on Gretch, art class is for freaks,” and maybe creating some art could help her calm her anxiety.</p><p>Another unforeseen benefit of taking an art class came when she went to sit down next to Janis on the first day and looked up to see the <em>prettiest</em> girl she had ever seen at the table across from them. She was painting a beautiful landscape on a canvas, while making conversation with the art teacher, and Gretchen was sure she looked like an idiot just staring at this girl. It wasn’t until Janis practically yanked her into her seat that she realized that there was no way the girl didn’t see that, especially because she was facing her while she painted, but when Gretchen finally got the nerve to risk another glance, the girl just smiled and waved at her.</p><p>Janis leaned towards Gretchen with a knowing smile, “that is Karen Smith. She’s been in every one of my art classes for years; she’s crazy talented.”</p><p>After Janis gave her Karen’s number – because Gretchen did <em>not</em> know how to speak to Karen without looking like an idiot – she found that texting Karen wasn’t much easier. She used emojis that Gretchen had never even seen; practically forming her own language, which made her think that Karen was way smarter than everyone gave her credit for. Because the more she texted Karen, the more she realized that the emojis weren’t nonsense that she chose at random, every single one of them meant something to Karen. And she <em>knew </em>Karen was smart when she explained the rule of two’s to her, “you know like you take art to get some space from Regina, and I love emojis because they’re like mini art!”</p><p>But as much as Gretchen loved texting her, there was no good reason for her to go over and talk to Karen, so when Janis asked her if she could get her oil paints from the shelf that was right behind Karen, Gretchen knew this was her chance – she couldn’t afford to mess this up. So, of course, she messed it up. She was so close, just a couple feet from Karen, when Shane Oman decided that now was the time to assert his place as resident asshole and class clown of Northshore, and trip Gretchen. Resulting in Gretchen grabbing for anything that she could catch herself on, which was the counter behind Karen. Which left her with her arms on either side of Karen, pinning her to the counter, and their faces inches apart, and if any god that’s watching right now could vaporize Gretchen on the spot she would be really grateful thanks.</p><p>She waited for Karen to say something, anything until what came out was, “I think we can add another example to the rule of two’s. Janis sent you to get her oil paints because she knew this would happen.” And when Gretchen looked back at Janis, she was giving a thumbs up to Shane Oman, and Gretchen didn’t know if she should kill her or thank her. But when Karen grabbed her chin and kissed her, Gretchen decided that she would definitely thank Janis later.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Let me know if you wanna see some more artist Karen because I like writing it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>